Dojji

I have to wonder about a possible deal with KC centered around Brock Holt and one of their (IIRC pretty numerous) bullpen arms. Johnny Giavotella was supposed to be their guy. He hasn't even been close to good enough to this point, and Chris Getz wouldn't be the starting 2B for very many teams. They have to be looking for a solution at second base. Regardless, I take KC seriously as a legit dark horse team this year. They're one more serious hitter, or serious step forward from one of their existing hitters, away from really starting to win some ballgames. THe Royals FO would probably commit murder if that's what it took to bring Dustin Pedroia to KC. He or a player like him are precisely what they need precisely where they need it. If the Pedroia trade rumors last year had any legs to them at all, KC would have to be a bigtime candidate for a destination. They're probably the one team with enough of a desparate need, and enough really legitimate top prospect stock, to possibly get a deal done.

Yes and their defense is really solid with good players at SS, C and CF if I recall correctly. I would kill to have Salvador Perez in particular on this team. Their offense is iffy, but it won't have to hit that much to make them relevant with that staff and that D.

If it was a zero sum game between Salty and Lavarnway, maybe I could see doing it that way. Quite frankly I'm becoming convinced that neither of those two are our catcher of the future. I want a defense guy back there. Bonus points if that defensive guy can manage a bit of offensive production. I would be delighted to see this team make a move for Miguel Olivo during the season.

In terms of raw power, Salty's arm is worlds better than Lavarnway's. Salty's technique is mediocre which hurts him, but if he ever straightened out the flaws in his mechanics he has the ability to be adequate in that department. Compare that to Lavarnway, which Soxprospects, well known for overrating the potential of their prospects, is gratuitously listing DH as a secondary position for. A little exerpt from their prospect analysis for your digestion...

Ehhhh. Halladay has ome of the best combinations of stuff and smarts in the major leagues today, but "by far superior" to Schill is a real stretch. Schill didn't have the pure stuff of a Halladay, not even close, but he was one of the smartest pitchers in major league ball, and his ability to raise his game in the playoffs is the stuff of legend. Very, very, very few big league pitchers in the entire history of the game have as unblemished a postseason record as Curt Schilling. I agree with your overall point. Halladay has the stuff, command and smarts to be very effective even if he loses a few miles off the top of his fastball, the same way Schill was. And Halladay and Schilling are both Hall bound pitchers, unless something PED-related turns up. I also agree that unless this team comes back together a lot faster than I think it will, Halladay is probably not coming here. We're not close enough to the top to be a Halladay away at this point and I don't see us catching all the breaks we'd need to reach that position in one year.

Yeah. I mean, I get the hate for Salty's defense. But just because Lavarnway is a potentially viable alternate, don't go nuts demanding that he actually get the job until you know what you're letting yourself in for. Lavarnway is the same basic kind of catcher as Salty. Offense first, raw, defensive skills a definite work in progress. If you only want him because he hasn't had as many chances to screw up right in front of you, you're setting yourself up for some serious disappointment.

Not in the context of the question I was actually asking, it isn't. You don't care what his present skillset looks like because you're taking it on complete faith that he'll win the playing time he needs to continue to improve at the big league level. You're presuming, in other words, that he is already more than good enough as a starting catcher to hold off any push by David Ross for more playing time. I'm not nearly sold on that proposition, and more to the point, the team has made it clear that THEY are not sold on it. Besides which, philosophically, I'm of the school that says you never just hand a ballplayer playing time. Make 'em earn it. THe hard way, if possible. Whatever you have to do to make a young player win out at his position rather than just accepting it as his birthright, do that thing, and you'll get a better ballplayer at the end of the day.

The fact that he's more likely to get reps in a meaningful development context if he is not also asked to carry the team? The fact that he 'll be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them in Pawtucket, that if he made the same mistakes in Boston would get him benched? Jung, I refuse to believe you are as naive as this. The question at its core is very simple. Is Lavarnway ready to be a big league starting catcher? I say no. You say you don't care one way or another as long as he slightly outperforms the worst starting catcher in the big leagues, who happens to be on our team. The important note to bear in mind here is that no one is actually saying yes, that Lavarnway is ready to start. I find that telling. NO one is actually saying that they're perfectly fine with a reprise of last year's version of Salty. Some of us are willing to point out the strengths that go with his weaknesses and leave him a slightly-over-replacement value catcher but that's as far as it goes. Given the chance to add an average to above average starting C to the team for a reasonable price, not one person here would turn that down because Salty. But you're engaging in a very common logical fallacy here. Plays it for laughs, but it gets the point across I think. My odd taste in television notwithstanding, there's some very viable arguments against the move you're proposing, starting with the fact that there's no real need to rush into doing it that way. Whatever minor upgrade Lavarnway currently presents over Salty is countered in two fronts by significant opportunity costs. The whole idea is impractical, born more out of frustration with Salty than any realistic analysis of our 3 catchers. And quite frankly, it's the nature of this kind of problem that the baseball season will sort it out for us and give us our answer, through attrition most likely, at some point down the line, without having to get cute or creative. I still wouldn't bet money that our next starting catcher is currently in system. Catching prospects are an utter crapshoot. Remember how the Rangers had an embarrassment of riches there with Teagarden, Ramirez and Salty? No one saw it coming when 3 years later they had to trade for Napoli, did they? You can't assume anything with these kids.

What a misinformed post. This is nothing like the Reddick situation. What drove me bananas about Reddick is that they had no serious alternative to Reddick beyond a guy with a 1 year deal. You don't move a younster who's begun to find success at the big league level because of a player on a one year freaking deal. Even though Cody Ross outperformed, that's still really, really stupid. And counting on Kalish for anything was truly retarded given the well documented injuries he'd already sustained, and only looks worse in hindsight. The difference in this situation is that we have no actual hole at catcher. We definitely have the ability to upgrade over what we have in terms of performance if the right deal comes along, no one would accuse either of our catchers of being a superstar, but there's no denying that Salty and Ross will both be healthy and above replacement level based on their histories. So that does give Cherrington a freer hand to make a deal, hopefully one that doesn't explode in his face as spectacularly as the actual value for value of the Reddick deal did. Or you could easily justify holding onto Lavarnway too, since he does represent a possible upgrade and a number of scenarios could see him on the roster this year (Any of Ross, Salty or Napoli going down could get him a quick ticket to Boston, with Salty shifting to first if it's Napoli)

SO WHAT???? THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE'S ANY GOOD!!!!! AND NO ONE IS DEBATING THIS ANYWAY!!!! CAN YOU READ IT THIS TIME???? Good lord, Jung, most people have these things, one on each side of their heads. I believe they're called ears. I'd assumed up to this point that they came standard on every model. Now I'm not quote so sure. Our hesitation to bring up Lavarnway has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with failing to understand that Lavarnway is not flawed, or at least not flawed to as great an extent, as Salty in certain areas. It has everything to do with the fact that Lavarnway is not as ready as Lavarnway could be. If putting up with a few more months of Salty gets Lavarnway over the hump so that he's actually effective when he next comes up, then so be it. Oh yeah, and rant about 25 HR's again -- you know, that thing that no one is arguing with you about that just goes to prove you're screaming at imaginary shadows rather than actually discussing.

If Lavarnway is raw in his gamecalling and receivership, and that hurts our chances to win, Ross will play more and Lavarnway will get fewer reps than he would have gotten at AAA. The team has not thrown in the towel on this season. Not yet anyway. You're trying to paint this as a zero risk transaction. I'm sorry, but that's absurdly untrue.

All this is is more "I hate Salty so let someone else start, Lavs is someone else, so let Lavs start." You have done nothing to demonstrate that Lavarnway should be brought up to the majors, to replace Saltalamacchia or for any other reason. You're so ridiculously focused on your hate-on for Salty you aren't actually reading long enough to understand the REASONS WHY people are arguing with you about exactly why the oh-so-horrible salty shouldn't be replaced immediately. No one is arguing with you that Salty is anything other than a deeply flawed catcher and I'd love to replace him. But not with Lavarnway who is by no means ready for prime time. And if not by Lavarnway, and certainly not by the career backup that is Ross, then by who?

That part is true. No reason Lester can't recover. That said some do, and some don't.

Verlander was 25, Lester is 28. Doesn't sound like a big difference, but it's pretty significant.

Repeating yourself with ever more overagitated pathos doesn't negate my point in the slightest. It is foolish to pretend that the fact that Salty sucks, even if absolutely true, means Lavarnway is any more ready for prime time than he actually is. We don't need a catcher that is better than you perceive Salty to be. We need a good catcher. If the team thinks that the better path to getting a good catcher is letting Salty fill the starter's role now and worrying about Lavs when he's shown us more, I don't have a problem with that conclusion.

Right, my only point is that people who want Lavs to break camp with the team are doing so on the basis of a vendetta, rather than based on common sense.

And I'd take this chance if it weren't a game of Russian Roulette with Lavarnway's career. If you force him into the bigs before he's had the reps to develop solid fundamental skills, it's going to come back to bite both him and us. That's the lion's share of what went wrong with Salty. And Lavarnway is by no means a natural defensive catcher. He spent half his career in college as an outfielder and DH'd a lot in the minors, became a full time catcher pretty late in life compared to a lot of young catching prospects and is correspondingly raw for his age. If there's one thing he doesn't need, it's having his minor league reps cut short.

Oh and before I forget -- I'm going to be interested, if I get a chance at all to do this, in seeing how Dan Butler performs this year as a catcher. He's kind of the dark horse right now but he's the best defensive catching prospect we've got in the high minors, and I've heard praise of his stuff for the last few years. If he can improve at the dish and gain a bit of proficiency overall, he could be an interesting dark horse.

And that's your reason to replace him with Lavarnway? Good god, you said maybe one sentence about Lavarnway and 3 paragraphs about how you hate Salty. WHICH IS MY FREAKING POINT. People are trying to pretend Lavarnway is ready and demand the FO rush him into service because it's easier to do that than to put up with Salty. And disregarding any argument you might want to make for or against Salty, that is entirely unfair to Lavarnway, because it sets him up 2 years from now to be in the same position Salty himself currently occupies. Salty was rushed into immediate service by the Rangers because he could hit a little, and never developed the skills he should have as a result, largely because he was never able to become tolerable at the big league level as the full time starting catcher, and thus never got consistent reps starting at about age 23 onward. Pretty critical years for a young catcher. Do you really want Lavarnway to go the same route? To back up in the big leagues because you've given yourself only 2 big league caliber catchers and he's not ready to start, and thus he never gets the reps to become what he could be? Or even risk that when we have a guy who's putting up a win or so above replacement and a pretty solid backup? If you can analyze Lavarnway's own body of work, regardless of Salty -- in fact forget Salty entirely for just this next few seconds and focus entirely on Lavarnway -- and tell me that a catcher who has done what Lavarnway has done is ready -- not "worth a shot," not "you never know," not "better than the horrible incumbent," but ACTUALLY READY -- then we can talk about whether we might want to consider moving Saltalamacchia. And only then. And maybe not even then, depending on what Napoli's hip does. We could need Salty as an emergency option at first base. And that's all besides the point that this is Spring freaking Training. The time of the year, of all times of the year, when you're trying to give yourself options. As opposed to straitjacketing yourself into precisely one starting catcher and precisely one backup.

Seriously, gun ownership is in enough trouble in this country without someone relatively high profile doing something this stupid. If you're going to own a gun, know exactly what the proper way to care for your firearm is, and do it that way.

That doesn't mean he's any good. I don't see any reason to rush Lavarnway as it stands right now. The call for Lavarnway sounds more like a plea for an alternative to the guy everyone has decided is terrible (Salty), than it is any real analysis of Lavarnway's own readiness. That being the case I'm all for slamming the brakes on the groupthink and giving the kid the time he needs to develop properly before we try to cram him into Varitek's armor the way we did with Salty himself (who everyone DAMN WELL SHOULD HAVE KNOWN was going to be a project with a lot of work ahead of him!)

Tek is our second best catcher ever. But not nearly one of the all-time greatest Red Sox. He will be remembered as one of the memorable players of his era on this team, the same way, say, Mo Vaughn is, or Jimmy Foxx, or Luis Tiant, and no one put them on this list. Outside Pedro himself, if there's anyone we've had in the "oughts" who has a fair chance to get onto that list, it's probably Big Papi, and that's mostly for what he meant in 04 and 07. Already forgotten for the most part.

If he shot any part of himself while cleaning his gun he wasn't doing it right.

The Rays will trade Price to a team or their own choice that's willing to go balls to the wall to re-sign him. I'm convinced that "we promise to re-sign Price if we possibly can and keep him out of your division" is going to be a wink-and-handshake condition of any Price deal. The Rays have too much to lose if Price comes back to the East so they are going to do everything within their power to make sure that Price doesn't come back to haunt them in a NYY or BOS (or TOR or BAL) jersey. Peering into my nonexistent crystal ball, I'd suspect that Price finishes his career somewhere west of the Mississippi. Angels, Dodgers, Giants, one of those teams looking for a chance to take a middle-aged core over the top (again?) in the coming years. Given that the Hernandez contract itself means that the Mariners at least think they're serious too, I could see them make a move for Price and give themselves one of the most absurd one-two tandems in recent history, probably the best since Johnson and Schilling. It has been hard to rebuild a team from FA since the days FA started. Now with the rules in place the way they are, it's rapidly becoming impossible to even seriously improve a decent team through FA. It's either the draft or it's the big trade, and heaven help you if the big trade goes belly-up.

Not the right way to term that. A better way is that even the Yankees have prices in talent they won't meet, and a smart team locks up a top performer like Verlander or Kershaw if they can and forces the Yankees to deal in talent rather than dollars if they want to poach another team's superstars. The fact that this strategy is out there, and works, is one of the reasons the Red Sox are having the devil of a time reloading. The deck has been tilted ever more heavily in favor of the team trying to re-sign its star rather than the team trying to filch one from another team over the last several years and I'm not sure we won't see that trend continue unless the MLBPA manage to gear up and fight it.